Palestine’s problem is only partly expressed as a frustrated 2-State Solution; it might, more effectively be understood as a 2-Israel problem. The times are desperate, and the belief systems and politics that create them must be called out and described for what they are: preposterous. The poets make more sense of than most; Yeats, especially: Continue reading »
International Relations
Israel’s unholy policy trinity – destroy, kill, lie – has been underway for decades. But since October 2023 it has reached horrific levels. The horror of Israeli destruction, torture and slaughter is apparently taken for granted by Israeli citizens and by supporters in western countries, largely because telling lies as a feature of warfare is Continue reading »
To break the deadlock in Japan-North Korea relations, Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, has proposed liaison offices in the capitals of both countries to resolve the poisonous abductees issue – the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the seventies and eighties. But Japan’s rightwing, using powerful abductee family organisations, seems determined Continue reading »
“The events since October 7 have been absolutely overwhelming. And that means they are overwhelming for everybody, but particularly for the people who are experiencing them, those who are suffering. The victims. It’s regularly said that October 7 represented the greatest killing of Jewish people since the Holocaust. And that’s correct. What’s said less frequently Continue reading »
The failure of last year’s referendum still troubles the country. The focus on the Voice to Parliament took attention away from the far more consequential question of truth telling, while paradoxically displaying how much it is still needed. The intense and prolonged debate displayed how historical interpretation still divides the country rather than providing the Continue reading »
The tragedy in the Middle East is that what Hamas’ Sinwar was to bin Laden, Israel is to America. Reading various accounts of Yahya Sinwar’s political thinking, it’s extraordinary how much the slain Hamas leader thought like Osama bin Laden. Likewise, there are the terrifying parallels between the response of the Israeli state and that Continue reading »
Australia is no longer a middle, nor moral, power although its political leaders think Australia is both. When did Australia lose its morality, and along with that loss, its status as a respected middle power? Continue reading »
In a just world, Prabowo Subianto should not be Indonesia’s new president. He ought to be facing the full strength of the law in court, if not serving time. The closest he’s come to justice is being banned from the US by three presidents, Clinton, Bush and Obama, and from Australia and presumably other jurisdictions. Continue reading »
It is difficult to reconcile new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s expressions of concern for the security of his country with his advocation of an Asian version of NATO. The two ideas are contradictory to say the least. Even without mentioning China, it is clear that the alleged threat to Japan’s security emanates from China. Continue reading »
Readers may recall my recent P&I post, Israel does not have a right to defend itself, as our PM keeps saying, 11 October. Since publication I have been questioned by some: does the argument made in respect of Palestinians resisting from the West Bank and Gaza, occupied by Israel, apply as well to resistance in Continue reading »